The Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission have issued a final warning to 6,000 charities that face deregistration for failing to lodge their AIS for two consecutive years. If deregistered, these charities will lose their entitlement to tax concessions

1380 charities, including 170 Victorian charities, will no longer be eligible for tax concessions as the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has revoked their registration. These charities have been deregistered due to failure to lodge their Annual Information Statement (AIS) for two consecutive years.  

The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) has announced its decision to revoke the registration of Queensland charity ‘Get Rid of SIDS Project Inc’, a charity reportedly linked to controversial anti-vaccine lobbyists Stephanie Messenger and Sherri Tenpenny. The charity was established in 2010 and has since sought donations to fund a study into whether toxic gases coming from mattresses cause SIDS.

Donating to charity is set to become even easier with telcos seeking 15 charities to participate in a 12 month pilot of a program enabling mobile users to make donations via SMS. Set to commence in July this year, the program is being coordinated by the Telco Together Foundation, an organisation which includes representatives from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone

Sham charities established to take advantage of generous donors seeking to help victims of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu have come to the attention of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)

Melbourne businesswoman Belle Gibson, developer of the popular iPhone/iPad app ‘The Whole Pantry’, is facing investigation by Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) following allegations that her company has been undertaking illegal fundraising activities.

The ACNC have announced that up to 1,400 ACNC registered charities face deregistration unless they lodge their Annual Information Statement (AIS) by 30 March 2015. Each of these charities has failed to lodge their AIS for 2 consecutive years.  If deregistered, they will no longer be eligible for charity tax concessions including income tax, fringe benefit tax and GST.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) has announced its decision to deregister the former AFL affiliated charity Balls4Life. Established in 2010, the charity raised money to fund prostate cancer research by selling signed match-day footballs and auctioning them on the Balls4Life website.

In line with its election promise to abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), the Abbott Government has now released Options Paper, Australia’s Charities and Not-for-profits which seeks feedback on its proposed arrangements for charities in Australia. The Government’s proposed arrangements attempt to balance the administrative burden of reporting with the need for organisations receiving concessional tax treatment to be publicly accountable.